Wiltshire ambulance's poor response times have come as no surprise to a Swindon restaurateur whose brother suffered a heart attack.

Manoj Madhani, of Rushey Platt, said the service is being neglected and needs immediate attention.

He was appalled last year after an ambulance took more than an hour to reach his brother, Sunil, after he had suffered a heart attack.

The Evening Advertiser reported yesterday how figures show the service has the worst record in England for reaching emergencies.

Mr Madhani, 34, said: "The figures come as no shock. What happened with my brother wasn't a one-off.

"I often hear how people are made to wait for unacceptable lengths of time after calling for an ambulance.

"We pay so much in taxes and then see our money being wasted on things like the clock in Swindon town centre. The £50,000 used to make that would have been far better spent making sure ambulances get to people in time.

"Once Sunil was in the ambulance and at the hospital the staff were fantastic and I have only praise for them. But the wait beforehand was unacceptable when lives are at risk."

In April, 62-year-old Pauline Marriner had to lead an ambulance from Covingham to Swindon's Great Western Hospital after it got lost ferrying her 85-year-old mother who had suffered a stroke.

The new figures show that just 55.7 per cent of the 10,400 immediately life-threatening calls received by staff in Wiltshire were reached in the Government target of eight minutes in 2003/04.

Ministers had set a goal of arriving at the scene of 75 per cent of category A emergencies within the target time. Nationwide, the average was 75.7 per cent.

Steve Rice, of the Ambulance Service Union, said: "Ambulance services are experiencing an annual increase in demand of six per cent with no additional resources to meet that demand.

"The department of health needs to adequately fund all ambulance services to enable them to hit all of their targets, not just the headline-grabbing category A."

Tim Skelton, of the Wiltshire Ambulance NHS Trust, said the figures didn't tell the whole story.

"The trust's performance in the autumn of 2003 was below 50 per cent. This performance is now in excess of 65 per cent and on track for 70 per cent in June 2004.

"This is a dramatic turnaround in performance due to the hard work of our staff."

Mr Skelton said the improvements were a result of new senior management in the trust and investment in frontline crews.

He said: "There have also been changes in the way that staff work in the new Joint Emergency Control Centre at Devizes. There is now a dedicated dispatch desk, focusing on responding to the life threatening emergencies."

Alex Emery